Module

1
Introduction

IIT,Bombay

Lecture
1
Need Identification and Problem
Definition

IIT,Bombay

Instructional objectives
The primary objective of this lecture module is to outline how to identify the need and define the
problem so as to begin with the activities and steps involved in design for manufacturing process

Steps involved in Engineering Design process

Figure 1.1.1 schematically outlines the typical steps involved in an engineering design process.

DefineProblem

Conceptual
Design

ProblemStatement
Benchmarking
QFD
PDS
ProjectPlanning

Productarchitecture

GatherInformation

ConfigurationDesign

Internet
Patents
Trade
Literature

Preliminaryselectionof
materialand
manufacturing
Modeling/sizingofparts

ConceptGeneration

Parametricdesign

Brainstorming
Functionaldecomposition
Morphologicalchart

Robustdesign
Tolerances
Finaldimensions
DFM

Evaluationof
concepts

Detaildesign

Pughconceptselection
Decisionmatrix

Arrangementofphysical
elementstocarryout
functions

Embodiment
design

Detaildrawingand
specifications

Figure 1.1.1 Discrete steps involved in engineering design process. It also mentions the
important techniques used in each steps.

IIT,Bombay

Conceptual Design
It is a process in which we initiate the design and come up with a number of design concepts and
then narrow down to the single best concept. This involved the following steps.
(1) Identification of customer needs: The mail objective of this is to completely understand
the customers needs and to communicate them to the design team
(2) Problem definition: The mail goal of this activity is to create a statement that describes
what all needs to be accomplished to meet the needs of the customers requirements.
(3) Gathering Information: In this step, we collect all the information that can be helpful for
developing and translating the customers needs into engineering design.
(4) Conceptualization: In this step, broad sets of concepts are generated that can potentially
satisfy the problem statement
(5) Concept selection: The main objective of this step is to evaluate the various design
concepts, modifying and evolving into a single preferred concept.

Embodiment Design
It is a process where the structured development of the design concepts takes place. It is in this
phase that decisions are made on strength, material selection, size shape and spatial
compatibility. Embodiment design is concerned with three major tasks product architecture,
configuration design, and parametric design.
(1) Product architecture: It is concerned with dividing the overall design system into small
subsystems and modules. It is in this step we decide how the physical components of the
design are to be arranged in order to combine them to carry out the functional duties of
the design.
(2) Configuration design: In this process we determine what all features are required in the
various parts / components and how these features are to be arranged in space relative to
each other.
(3) Parametric design: It starts with information from the configuration design process and
aims to establish the exact dimensions and tolerances of the product. Also, final decisions
on the material and manufacturing processes are done if it has not been fixed in the
previous process. One of the important aspects of parametric designs is to examine if the
design is robust or not.
IIT,Bombay

Detail Design
It is in this phase the design is brought to a state where it has the complete engineering
description of a tested and a producible product. Any missing information about the
arrangement, form, material, manufacturing process, dimensions, tolerances etc of each part is
added and detailed engineering drawing suitable for manufacturing are prepared.

Need Identification and Problem Definition

Out of all the steps in the engineering design process, the definition of the problem is by far the
most important step. A complete and thorough understanding the problem is prerequisite in
achieving the targeted solution. For example, the ultimate test of a product is how well it sells.
However, it is first essential to understand and provide what a customer wants in the product
which can only be achieved by defining the problem precisely at the first place.

A-priori Activities
In majority of the situations, a significant amount of development work precedes the tight
definition of a design problem. These a-priori development works can generally be referred to
planning. The primary purpose of the planning stages is to collect all the necessary information
and to decide, for example, whether manufacturing a new product is feasible or what would be
the best time to market a new or modified product, or whether a specific company has the
adequate resource to manufacture a new product. Usually the initial design projects can be
categorized as follows.
Variation of an existing product
This includes minor changes in few parameters of an existing the product e.g. change in the
power of a motor or change in the design of a typical clamping bracket, and so on.
Improvement in an existing product
This involves major redesign of an existing product primarily to improve performance and
quality, update features (may be due to competitions), reduce cost in manufacturing and so on.
Development of a new product for a low-volume production run
This is primarily referred to new parts or products that would possibly be manufactured in
smaller number of units (e.g. < 10000). In many cases, a large manufacturing unit may wish to
IIT,Bombay

buy standard available components available from smaller manufacturing units rather than
actually making the same to avoid additional costs.
Development of a new product for mass production
These include products or parts which need to be produced in large volumes e.g. in the category
of automobiles, home appliance etc. Such design projects provide the design engineer the
flexibility in selecting appropriate material and manufacturing process through careful planning.
One-of-a-kind design
Such projects can vary from a simple, quick design requiring minimum of analysis like designing
of a welding fixture to hold parts to large exclusive projects such as building of a 200-MW steam
turbine.

Product Life cycle

Every product goes through a cycle from birth, followed by an initial growth stage, a relatively
stable matured period, and finally into a declining stage that eventually ends in the death of the
product as shown schematically in Figure 1.1.2.
(1) Introduction stage: In this stage the product is new and the customer acceptance is low
and hence the sales are low.
(2) Growth stage: Knowledge of the product and its capabilities reaches to a growing number
of customers.
(3) Maturity stage: The product is widely acceptable and sales are now stable, and it grows
with the same rate as the economy as a whole grows.
(4) Decline stage: At some point of time the product enters the decline stage. Its sales start
decreasing because of a new and a better product has entered the market to fulfill the
same customer requirements.

IIT,Bombay

Figure 1.1.2 Schematic outline of a product life cycle

Technology development cycle

The development of a new technology follows a typical S-shaped curve [Figure 1.1.3(a)]. In its
early stage, the progress is limited by the lack of ideas. A single good idea can make several
other god ideas possible, and the rate of progress is exponential. Gradually the growth becomes
linear when the fundamental ideas are in place and the progress is concerned with filling the gaps
between, the key ideas. It is during this time when the commercial exploitation flourishes. But
with time the technology begins to run dry and increased improvements come with greater
difficulty. This matured technology grows slowly and approaches a limit asymptotically. The
success of a technology based company lies in its capabilities of recognizing when the core
technology on which the companys products are based begin to mature and through an active
R&D program, transfer to another technology growth curve [Figure 1.1.3(b)] which offers
greater possibilities.

IIT,Bombay

(b)

(a)

Figure 1.1.3 Schematic outline of (a) technology development curve, (b) improved program to
develop new technology before the complete extinct of existing technology.

Identifying Customer Needs

It is usually the desire of the customers that drive the development of a new product or
modification of an existing product. It is thus critical to collate the need or views of the
customers when starting a design project. The needs of the customers can be gathered through
multiple routes.
Interviewing with customers
An active team should constantly meet current and potential customers to identify the strength
and weakness of a product so as to examine if there is any need to upgrade.
Focus group
A focus group refers to a small sub-set of existing customers or potential customers. A
discussion is usually facilitated in many such groups separately to identify more closely the
merits and demerits of the product.
Customer survey
A written questionnaire is possibly the best way to know the pubic opinions for redesigning an
existing product or developing a new product.
Customer complaints
Complaints from customers provide a significant premise to identify the requisite improvement
for an existing product.
IIT,Bombay

Constructing a Survey Instrument

Following are some essential steps to prepare a survey document based on the views and feedbacks from the customers.
1.

Determine the purpose of the survey, its result and the how the result will be used.

2.

Determine the type of possible data collection method such as face to face interview or by
questionnaire or some other way.

3.

Determine what specific information is needed. Each question should have a clear goal.
Also the number of question should be optimized and kept at as minimum as possible.

4.

Design the questions in such a way that they are unambiguous, unbiased, clear, brief and
simple to understand and to answer too. There are usually three basic type of questions.

Attitude questions: how the customer thinks or feels about something,

Knowledge questions: Questions asked to determine whether the customer know

the specifics about the product,

Behavior questions they usually contain phrases like how often, how much, or
when.

Following are some tips for developing the questions.

Use simple language and vocabulary. Each question should have a specific goal
and focus directly on one specific topic.

Questions may include yes no do not know or strongly disagree mildly

disagree neutral mildly agree strongly agree, etc.

Open ended questions allow customers to express more explicitly,

Arrange the question in such an order that it makes sense and provides content to
what you are trying to learn from the customer,

Pretest the survey on a small sample before distributing the survey. It helps to
identify questions that were poorly built, misunderstood, whether the rating scale
was adequate and whether the questionnaire is too long

Administer the survey: Proper care should be taken that the sample of the survey
should constitute a representative from all the key areas.

IIT,Bombay

Evaluating Customer Needs

The responses of the customer should be evaluated on a relative scale, say using a scale from 1
(low importance) to 5 (high importance). Those responses with high average score should be
given a greater priority when redesigning an existing product or designing a new product. It is
very essential to divide the customer needs into two groups: hard constrains that should be
satisfied (must) and softer needs that can be traded off against other customer needs (wants).
Customer needs can best be identified from face to face interview, from a focus group survey or
from the higher-ranking items in the written survey.

Customer requirements
Customer requirements must be characterized on the basis of performance, time, cost and
quality. The performance would refer to the specific or intended function of a product. The time
would include all the time aspects that would be involved in the design. A proper design should
be able to reduce the cycle time to market a new product. The cost includes all the monetary
aspects of the design and hence, quite crucial. The cost aspect also determines the buying
decisions of any product by the customers. The quality is a complex characteristic with many
aspects and definitions and can best be defined as the totality of features and characteristic of a
product that bears on its ability to satisfy its stated needs. Another important aspect of the
customers requirements is the value of a product that can be envisaged as the ratio of the
function (or the quality) provided and the cost. For example, the quality of a manufactured
product can be envisaged from the following eight basic dimensions.

IIT,Bombay

Dimensions
Performance

Features

Reliability
Durability
Conformance

Description
Does the product perform to its standards? Does the product perform for the
intended service?
What additional benefits will be added to the product? Will they be they
tangible or non-tangible benefits?
Is the product consistent? Will it perform well over its lifetime and perform
consistently?
How durable is your product. Will it last with daily use?
Does your product meet with any agreed internal and national
specifications?

Serviceability

Is the product easy to service.

Aesthetics

Is the product appealing to the eye?

Perceived
Quality

What sort of quality perception does the marketing team want to convey in
their marketing message? Will price charged reflect the quality of the
product?

The dimensions of performance, features and conformance are often interrelated. We therefore
need to recognize that there are four levels of customer requirements as
(1)

Expectations that refer to the basic attributes, which one would expect to be present in the
product as standard features,

(2)

Spokens that refer to the specific features, which the customer would say and want as a
feature in the product.

(3)

Unspokens that refer to the attributes of a product that the customers would not generally
ask for but are still important and hence, cannot be ignored.

(4)

Exciters which are also known as delighters and are features that make the product unique
and distinguish the same from their competitors.

These requirements must be satisfied at each level before we move and address those at the next
level. Not all customer requirements are equal and hence it becomes very essential to identify
these requirements which are important and ensure that they are delivered in the product. To do
this one must adopt a strategy for actively seeking the the voice of the customer.

IIT,Bombay

Quality Function deployment

Quality function deployment (QFD) is a planning and problem-solving tool that is used from
transforming customer requirement into the engineering characteristics of the product. QFD
helps to transform the customer needs (also referred to as voice of customer) into engineering
characteristics (and appropriate test methods) for a product. It is a graphical technique, which
systematically looks at all the elements that are deemed important based on customers survey go
into the production definitions. A sample layout of the QFD diagram is shown below. Further
analysis of QFD with real-life examples is presented later in Lecture 3 of Module 5 (Design for
Quality).

Figure 1.1.2 Schematic presentation of quality function deployment (QFD) house / table

Following are a brief outline of each section of the quality function deployment table.
IIT,Bombay

Customer requirements (whats)

These are typically the customer requirements.
Competitive assessment
It shows how the top two or three competitive products rank with respect to the customer
requirements. This starts with ranking each customer requirements on a scale of 1 to 5 and then
by considering planned improvement and any requirements that are planned for special
attentions.
Engineering characteristics (hows)
The engineering characteristics that enable satisfying the customer requirements are listed in this
column.
Correlation matrix
It shows the degree of interdependence of the engineering characteristics with each other in the
roof of the house.
Relationship matrix
It represents the correlation between the engineering characteristics and the customer
requirements.
Absolute importance
To determine the absolute importance we need to multiply the numerical value in each of the
cells of the relationship matrix(6) by the importance rating (3) and then sum the numbers in the
cells of each column.
Relative importance
This represents the absolute importance but normalized on a scale of 1 to 100.
Technical competitive assessment
This refers to the benchmarking of the company performance against the top two or three
competitors for each of the engineering characteristics.
Technical difficulties
These depict the ease (or the extent of difficulty) to achieve each engineering characteristic.
Target values
This would depict the final target set based on the key engineering characteristics that are
deemed important and the assessment of the technical difficulty.

IIT,Bombay

Product Design Specifications

The product design specification is the basic control and reference document that would include
the outcomes of the product development exercise, and is the must to begin with and execute the
design and manufacturing of any specific part or product. The quality function deployment tool
provides the most crucial inputs in writing the product design specifications. Following are some
of the important elements of a typical product design specification document. It is, however, not
necessary that the product design specification document of any product will contain all these
elements.
[A] In-use purposes and market requirements
(a) Title and Purpose or function of the product,
(b) Predictable unintended use of the product,
(c) Special features of the product,
(d) What would be the competitive products?
(e) What is the indented market and why there is a need for this product?
(f)

Relationship of the product to the other company products,

(g) Anticipated market demand (units per year) and target price.
[B] Functional Requirements
(a)

Functional performances such as flow of energy, information, materials, operational

steps, efficiency, accuracy, etc.,

(b)

Physical requirements such as shape, size, weight, surface finish, etc.,

(c)

Service environment such as storage and transportation requirement,

(d)

Life-cycle issues including useful life, reliability (mean time to failure), robustness,
ease of installation, maintenance and repair, recyclability, etc.

(e)

Human factors including importance of aesthetics, ergonomics and user-training.

[C] Corporate Constrains

(a)

Is there adequate time to design a quality product and its manufacturing process (time to
market)

(b)

What are the requirements for manufacturing this product?

(c)

Do existing relationships with the suppliers pose any constraint on manufacturing?

(d)

Are there any constraints in using the trademark, logo, brand name?

(e)

What are the profitability and return on investment (ROI) that must be met?
IIT,Bombay

(f)

The production team should follow professional ethics at every level of the design
process when they are dealing with suppliers, dealers, corporate officials, society etc.

[D] Social, Political and Legal Requirements

(a)

The product design specification should meet / contain all the requisite safety and
environmental regulations,

(b)

The product design specification should contain all the required standards,

(c)

The product design specification must be completed with respect to all safety and
liability norms,

(d)

The product design specification should consider all the information related to the
patents and intellectual property that are applicable.

Product Design Specifications (PDS) is explained with the following example in which the PDS
is done for an adjustable wheel chair.

Criterion

Performance

Requirement

Seat width

Primary Customer

Patient

Metrics & Targets

Metric

Target
16 through 20 2 inch

Seat width adjustable by

Inches

increments

user
Target Basis

Market research

Verification Method

Prototyping

Similarly, other dimensions of the wheel chair can be set. However, the criteria are not only
based on the performance. There can be other criteria as well like aesthetics, life in service, legal
(Patents, Product Liability) and so on. One of them is shown below.

IIT,Bombay

Criterion

Life in Service

Requirement

Appropriate service life for capital asset

Primary Customer

Hospitals

Metrics & Targets

Metric

Target

Life

Years

15 for frame and 5 for seat

Target Basis

Market Analysis

Exercise
1. Write a survey to find what customers want in a refrigerator.

References
1. G Dieter, Engineering Design - a materials and processing approach, McGraw Hill, NY,
2000.
2. http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~far/me491/Sample%20Reports/Keen%20PDS%20Report.pdf.

IIT,Bombay